Pick two poets who seem to have nothing to do with each other — a Gothic American and a pastoral Englishman, say — and see where the catalogue actually joins them: overlapping years, shared ground, distinctive themes, and the poems that secretly rhyme.
Isobel Pagan
Lady Nairne
A random pair who overlapped in time and whose poems already rhyme in the catalogue — a way into poets you may not have met.
Isobel Pagan, known in her own district as Tibbie Pagan, was born about 1740, probably near Nithhead in the parish of New Cumnock, Ayrshire, and died at Muirkirk on 3 November 1821. Her dates alone suggest a life that crossed extraordinary changes in Scottish society: she was born before the great age of Robert Burns, lived through the American and French Revolutions, witnessed the expansion of mining and ironworking…
“Was not that great nonsense?”
Carolina Oliphant, later Lady Nairne, was born on 16 August 1766 at Gask House in Perthshire, into a family whose private memories were inseparable from one of Scotland’s most public historical wounds. She died on 26 October 1845, also at Gask, after a life of seventy-nine years in which she became one of the most accomplished and widely loved writers of Scottish song. For much of that life, however, the public did n…
“I am low in funds, but still wish to do good to Ireland with what I have left. Tell me what will be of most use.”
About 118 km separate Near Nith-head, New Cumnock, Ayrshire, Scotland from Gask House, Perthshire, Scotland. Shared ground: United Kingdom.
Distinctive words drawn from each poet’s critiqued poems — what they keep writing about, not just what their biographies mention.
Isobel Pagan: nithhead, new cumnock, muirkirk, scottish vernacular song, account of the author's lifetime, the spinning wheel, ca' the yowes to the knowes, robert burns. Lady Nairne: gask house, perthshire, jacobite songs, the land o' the leal, will ye no come back again?, robert burns, major william murray nairne, mrs bogan of bogan.
The closest poem-to-poem matches in critique space — the sort of kinship a listener hears before the catalogue admits it.
Notable events from the years they were both alive.
Isobel Pagan: Longing, Tenderness, Sorrow. Lady Nairne: Longing, Sorrow, Tenderness.
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